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MitchMan
Super Nomad
Posts: 1856
Registered: 3-9-2009
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Fertilizer
Anybody know a good place to get organic fertilizers in La Paz?
Home Depot doesn't have steer manure, or, what they do have seems to be more like a pulverized dry powdery compost. I found a couple of "viveros"
that have what they refer to as some form of plant food, but it would be great to find some real steer manure or chicken manure.
I've got a Mango, an Orange, and a Lime tree that need some nourishment. There is plenty of Nitrogen around, but that doesn't do that much to
promote good fruit, just good leaves.
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Bob and Susan
Elite Nomad
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Registered: 8-20-2003
Location: Mulege BCS on the BAY
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Miracle-GroŽ is sold at home depot
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gnukid
Ultra Nomad
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There are a ton of ranches behind the home depot, behind the tress that line the road as it meets the whale tail, next to the water treatment plant.
You'll see a dirt road cutting off to the side of the carretera where there is often a person selling fresh fruits. Go back in there and follow the
roads, ask around and you'll find ranches with goats, cattle, chickens and you can politely ask to trade something for the composted manure. They
often have old feed bags you can fill up, bring a shovel and a truck.
Of course, it's helpful to offer something such as a food, fruit, fish or healthy drinks in exchange. If you need help, ask a local to come with you.
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MitchMan
Super Nomad
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gnukid,
THAT IS GREAT INFO. Thank you, man! I owe you.
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jimgrms
Senior Nomad
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Location: oceanside ca
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What about burying some fish around the trees, people do it for other plants ,
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Udo
Elite Nomad
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I have also heard the same thing about the manures.
IF the water treatment plant lets their sludge effluent dry out, pick up some of that. It will be the best fertilizer you'll ever find.
In the Northwest US, Canada and Alaska, the tree farmers now buy such fertilizer from the treatment plants. Their trees mature at a rate of 10-15
times faster.
| Quote: | Originally posted by gnukid
There are a ton of ranches behind the home depot, behind the tress that line the road as it meets the whale tail, next to the water treatment plant.
You'll see a dirt road cutting off to the side of the carretera where there is often a person selling fresh fruits. Go back in there and follow the
roads, ask around and you'll find ranches with goats, cattle, chickens and you can politely ask to trade something for the composted manure. They
often have old feed bags you can fill up, bring a shovel and a truck.
Of course, it's helpful to offer something such as a food, fruit, fish or healthy drinks in exchange. If you need help, ask a local to come with you.
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Udo
Youth is wasted on the young!
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David K
Honored Nomad
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Location: San Diego County
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'Fresh' steer manure is not good to use according to my plant growing friends... compost it, leach the salts out.
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monoloco
Elite Nomad
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Location: Pescadero BCS
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You could also drive up to San Juan de La Costa and see if they will sell you some rock phosphate, it would be really beneficial for flowering and
fruiting plants.
"The future ain't what it used to be"
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vandenberg
Elite Nomad
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While we 're discussing fertilizers I have a question about my Washington oranges. This year, for some reason, the fruit is very dry and pulpy. The
trees look healthy and have plenty of fruit. Also got plenty of water.
Anyone know of a reason the fruit is dry and not very good eating.
Lack of something??
All suggestions appreciated.
Also, my grapefruit, mandarin, tangerine and lime trees are fine all with healthy juicy fruit.
[Edited on 2-6-2014 by vandenberg]
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gnukid
Ultra Nomad
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It's true from our experience, the land is salty and the steer manure is salty so you do need to continue to break it down for about a year or more.
Though the ranches I visit do rotate their herds, so you can use the areas that have been unused for a year or more and find composted material on
site. I try to get as much goat and chicken manure as possible, plus some steer manure and mix with other materials and regular old dusty dirt.
The leach fields are next door and you can remove the dried material from dry ponds. Be careful, use boots, pants, long sleeves and wash up
immediately afterwards and always ask for permission first and bring some muscle.
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Whale-ista
Super Nomad
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Location: San Diego
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Using steer manure can be smelly. Chicken poop is better, lots of nitrogen.
Have you considered doing your own composting with kitchen scraps and yard waste? I have done that for years with earthworms to create compost for my
garden.
Just throw in yard clippings, fruit discards, coffee grounds etc. add some worms to speed up the process of decomposition and they are very effective
at creating good-quality fertilizer with less odor.
Costco sells large tumbling containers for compost but you can do it them in much smaller spaces also. You can even set them up indoors: http://compost.css.cornell.edu/worms/basics.html
[Edited on 2-6-2014 by Whale-ista]
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
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baconjr
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I can't believe that my first job out of Ag school making potting soil for Kmart would allow me to speak with authority about manure. Poultry has
some of the highest nitrogen percentages but is high in salts seeing the chickens poop and pee out of the same location. Steer is good but needs to
rot and compost to release salts and make the nitrogen available. Sheep and goats manure are good and due to the little poop pellets it is easier to
handle. The trees that do the best is with worm castings and worm tea. It releases all sorts of micro nutrients, the worms aerate the soil and you
will have happy disease resistant plants. Making a worm composting setup isn't rocket science, get a mound of manure, find some worms to innoculate
the pile and keep moist. You will have worms in no time, just remember worms like moisture so keep moist. About the dry fruit, try picking a little
earlier. As time goes by the tree will reabsorb moisture from the fruit. Another tidbit add calcium to your soil it will help facilitate the leaching
of salt out of the root zone. ground up shells work.
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Whale-ista
Super Nomad
Posts: 2009
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Location: San Diego
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Thanks for the feedback Baconjr. Chicken poop is good mixed with compost for the reasons you cited, and I've done that to supplement what the worms
produce.
I also add eggshells to my compost, and the worm bins I use (one large Costco style tumbler, one small box of worms, in case the tumbler worms crash)
do seem to produce the best solution for my garden: compact size, produce good quality worm poop, and no need to feed chickens/cows/other large
mammals.
Just to remind people considering this: no meat, lard, bones, etc. in compost! Plant based Oils in small amounts are ok. Citrus should be mixed with
other stuff- the acid seems to unsettle the worms.
I just dumped a bunch of grass clippings in the large tumbler to warm things up. But the worms can survive cold weather- they just gravitate to center
of bin.
They do OK in heat, but need moisture, so plan to add water along with food esp if the weather is warm/dry.
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
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Floatflyer
Nomad
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Maybe a simple question but as you are talking about worms and grass clippings are you using these in Baja?? Around our area things that like
moisture are limited to my beer drinking friends.
We are in a very dry location but do have cows and chickens nearby. We have a small composting area but anything green left over from the table is
usually eaten that night by something. Most everything else just dries out.
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john68
Nomad
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maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, but I have never seen an earthworm in Baja.
Can you buy earthworms in La Paz?
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Whale-ista
Super Nomad
Posts: 2009
Registered: 2-18-2013
Location: San Diego
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I am referring to what I do in San Diego right now, not Baja. I've gardened when living in Ensenada, and recall that even there things dry out more
quickly, and I did not set up a compost. I can only imagine how much warmer/drier things are in Baja Sur.
I may try composting as I transition back to spending more time in ensenada, and will stick to containers vs. planted in the ground since they are
easier to manage and the soil is pretty lousy. Possibly raised beds. Also, I'm near the coast, so that keeps things cooler/moister.
Clearly, techniques would have to be modified to adjust to a drier climate. No grass clippings: add leaves from trimmed trees and kitchen scraps. If
you have a sealed plastic container for worms/compost, that will certainly help retain moisture. And mulching around bases of plants/trees is
essential.
Perhaps a garden forum needs to be established? How many gardeners around here?
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
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baconjr
Nomad
Posts: 128
Registered: 7-14-2012
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Mood: Es la vida de perro!
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sheet compositing (no I didn't misspell it)
Here is a link for sheet composting that works really well, low maintenance. http://www.patternliteracy.com/books/gaias-garden/how-to-the-ultimate-bomb-proof-sheet-mulch
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Whale-ista
Super Nomad
Posts: 2009
Registered: 2-18-2013
Location: San Diego
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actually this is about mulching which is different from composting. You can add compost to mulch, but the processes/goals are different.
I'm beginning to think Nomad may need a gardening forum...
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
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gnukid
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4411
Registered: 7-2-2006
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| Quote: | Originally posted by john68
maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, but I have never seen an earthworm in Baja.
Can you buy earthworms in La Paz? |
I was digging a garden this week in la paz and there were many earth worms, huge and very energetic.
There are worm casting beds in the gardens known as Sabor de la Tierra right next the RV campground near the beach on Nayarit. You may ask there for
help/advice with worms for compost. They are open 9am-1pm Mon-Sat.
Another topic of concern is gophers, we've been having lots of trouble with gophers invading gardens lately.
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neilm81301
Nomad
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Registered: 3-21-2012
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BSF larvae (SP?)
| Quote: | Originally posted by Whale-ista
Just to remind people considering this: no meat, lard, bones, etc. in compost! Plant based Oils in small amounts are ok. |
They tell me black soldier fly larvae will compost about anything - meat, fish, fat, oil, grease... I don't know about bones.
There are some cool time-lapse videos of the little buggers going to town on whole fish, hamburgers, etc.. They turn the waste into compost, and
themselves into chicken feed... or bait!
Should work well in the warm climate.
Neil
[Edited on 2-7-2014 by neilm81301]
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